Boop XD

Chapter six

She woke up next to a dying fire, a cold sweat running down her spine. Asterix was asleep, the scar along his face eerie in the flickering light and his face seemed scrunched up in pain, but he was fast asleep.
There were a few clouds in the sky, illuminated by a full moon as it slowly made its way across the sky. In a few hours the sun would come out and they would keep riding, yet she didn’t know if she wanted to go west anymore.
The sun always set in the west and rose in the east, in her dream the sun was setting so the ghost was pointing south, unless Jaro’s dreams didn’t follow the same patterns as this land. She’s recognized the word Tror, it meant you. You… south? Why would the ghost want her to go south? What was south? What if it was a trap, maybe the gods had planned for her to die. Maybe Valek was meant to survive while she died.
She clenched her jaw and looked back up to the sky. She felt tired, but couldn’t seem to lie down again or close her eyes.
South.
If she wanted to know what the ghost was saying she needed to learn the Northern Tongue, but there weren’t any living people that remembered it. Most sayings had lost their translation, so couldn’t use them to figure out the words.
Jaro sighed and placed a log on the fire.
One of the horses nickered softly as the fire crackled and Asterix twisted around, but other than that the entire forest was silent. Like her dream.

Jaro had never been south. She’d never even seen the Stone Sea, the barren land between north and south. Valek almost joined her father on a hunting trip to the Stone Sea, but had decided against it. She and Lysias had been five or so then, Kilian and Asgar a few years older, but neither ready to protect the house or village alone. That was the closest any of her siblings got to go south. She didn’t even know if her father ever went past the Stone Sea. Janick had once, but never spoke of it to her. How different would the south be? She knew it was warmer, and there were kingdoms with giant cities besides clans with villages spread out along the north… The Nestvek Clan was the second largest, a rival of the Kletchars since before the south attacked. They didn’t have any Melkrix blood, but were a formidable enemy in those times; most of their villages and territories were along the coast to the east. They’d probably be really happy to hear that they were now the norths strongest clan. Though she wondered if the south would attack them too. Maybe they were planning on wiping out the entire north besides take over. Or they just wanted to kill the Kletchars. The Nestveks could have even helped the southerners attack, it could have been their own plan.
Jaro let her mind wander as the moon made its way across the sky. Thinking about how it could have been if the southerners hadn’t attacked, wondering what it would’ve been like if the Melkrix had never died out. What life would have been like had she been born as a son. If the gods had cursed her family when she was born, maybe if she were a son, they’d all be still alive.
She sniffed, wiping her tears away.
She was the last Kletchar, she needed to stay strong, to continue for her family. Crying would get her nowhere.
“You’re awake early” she heard Asterix murmur and watched him roll over to face the fire.
“I couldn’t sleep.”
He yawned, “I barely slept when I lost my parents… I still barely sleep…”
She clenched her jaw again. She didn’t want to talk to him about this. She didn’t need his pity. She was a Kletchar’Tsen, strong and brave.
“Why are you up so early?”
“Thieves and bandits are always roaming forests at night. Especially in the south. It’s become habit” he shrugged, pushing himself up.
“The rabbit will last us a couple days at most. We will need to catch something bigger soon though. A boar would be good.”
Jaro didn’t answer him. She didn’t feel like talking, instead she looked up to the sky.
Though she couldn’t see it, the sun was rising. The sky behind her was a dull blueish grey while behind Asterix it was still dark and speckled with stars, at least that was what she was able to see. She didn’t like how dense the trees here were, they were reminding her of her dream and it felt like they would start crushing her again.
“We need to go south.”
“What?”
“I had- I had a dream. We need to go south. Past the Stone Sea” she looked down to Asterix again.
“You want to go South? Do you want the knights to find you? The man that killed your family is down there. Don’t tell me you’re going to avenge them. It’s not worth it.”
“Not worth it?” a shadow crossed her face.
“I lost my entire family. My entire Clan, and you say it’s not worth it? I would give my life a thousand times just to see my brothers one more time. I would happily die if they could live.”
“It’s not worth it, Jaro. They’re dead. You can’t change that. Going south and killing that man won’t bring them back. Its best if you give up now” he slowly got up.
“Give up? Give up?! I’m a Kletchar! I am the Trexah of Racknare Kletchar’Tsen! I won’t just give up!” she pushed herself up and took a step closer to him, “I know my brothers are dead. But the men that killed them deserve to be dead too. They were cowards. Men too weak to fight with their own blood and bone.”
“You northerners and your names. They are just names! You could live a normal life. Find some small village and change your name. That would be so much simpler than… than this! You are just going to get yourself killed.”
“You can leave. I never asked you, Southerner, to accompany me. If I’m too dumb for you then leave. I’m going south, with or without you. It doesn’t matter. Any man who insults my families name, any man who thinks I can just take a new name and live as if this never happened, is dumber than the man who decided to assassinate and murder my people.”
“The only idiot I see here is you. Knights fight with sword and armor because they don’t want to die, not because they’re cowards. You northerners are so obsessed with honor and bravery! There’s more to life than this shit!”
“Shit?” Jaro clenched her fists and took a deep breath.
“All you southerners are the same. You always want more. You want power and control above all costs. You don’t believe in honor because you don’t have any. You call my peoples culture shit because you don’t have any” she looked him right in the eyes.
“I’m leaving. I’m going south. The gods sent me that dream for a reason. The gods sent me that dream to avenge my family” she took a step closer, “if you try to stop me, if you try to follow me, I will kill you” the southerners were right about one thing. The northerners were savage. Especially when their family was involved.
“I’m not calling your culture shit. I’m calling your ideals shit. I’m calling you an idiot for believing in some stupid dream. I’m calling you an idiot for thinking you can avenge your family. Its impossible. I’ve tried.” He didn’t back down, he glared right back.
“You tried and then gave up. I will fight till the man who killed my brothers is dead; I will die trying to avenge all those who I’ve lost. I will gladly die avenging the North” she walked past him to Storm and Wolf.
“Akach” she heard Asterix say behind her.
“What?”
“You’re an idiot. A gods damned idiot. Go ahead. Waste your life” she turned around and glared at him, “but I’m not going to waste mine” he picked up Selenus’s saddle and practically dropped it on his horse.
Jaro closed her eyes and grabbed Storms mane. He’s just a southerner; a worthless southerner. She didn’t need him, or anyone else.
Let the bastard leave.
And that’s just what she did.
Asterix had tightened the saddle quickly and was mounted by the time she opened her eyes again, he looked down at her, “I hope you find some reasoning in that thick skull of yours. What you’re doing is a death wish” and with that he was galloping away.
Jaro didn’t need anyone.
She couldn’t need anyone.
She was the last Kletchar, and that meant she was the only one who could avenge her family. No southerner or northerner could help her in this.
Yet no matter how much she told herself she didn’t need him or want him; she couldn’t stop the tears after her rage subsided. She was alone again. Though she barely knew him, and he wasn’t the kindest man she’d ever met, he was a person who’d understood her loss. He was a person that could have helped.
But what was done was done. She wouldn’t go running after him.
Flexing her fingers, she wiped the tears away and took a deep breath. She was a Kletchar’Tsen, strong and brave.
Jaro walked over to the saddles, kneeling next to Storm’s saddle when she noticed Asterix had left the wood and his axe. Good. The bastard deserved it.
After saddling the horses and throwing some dirt over the fire she mounted Storm and took one last glance around.
aside from the mound of dirt where the fire had been and a few broken leaves from the fall before, the small clearing appeared to be untouched. As if she was never there.
Jaro prodded Storm’s sides, and after tugging a bit on Wolf’s reins, started riding away at a brisk trot.
A trot that would bring her further and further from her home.
A few days ago her only worry had been if the other Kletchar’s would accept her as a Kletchar’Tsen, or if she would have been thrown out of the family and cursed.
She was accepted, but now she was the last Kletchar. Maybe this was the same thing as being cursed.
But it didn’t matter if she was cursed or not, she would avenge her family. She would avenge all the northerners who’d been mistreated by the southerners. Beginning with the man who ordered the knights to attack.
She would avenge them if it was the last thing she did.

After looking up to the sky Jaro slowly brought the horses to a stop. She couldn’t see the sun past the trees, but from the color of the sky she could tell sunset wasn’t far off, maybe an hour if she was lucky.
She hopped off of Storm and looked around. The forest here was even denser than before; most of the trees were growing nearly on top of each other, but near an old oak there was a little more room.
A few hours ago she’d stopped by a stream so the horses could drink, and that was the first time she realized she didn’t have a waterskin with her. She’d decided to start riding to the south west after that, knowing that the most villages were to the west. Jaro knew it wasn’t smart, but she needed proper supplies and food is she wanted to make it too the Stone Sea, plus it would let her gauge and figure out what was going on with the southerners. Most likely they were trying to take over the north again, but she couldn’t be sure yet.
Hopefully she’d find a village in the next day or so.
She tied up the horses on the oak and started making a fire.
It didn’t take long to get the flames crackling through the dry twigs, but by the time she found enough wood to keep the fire going for a few hours at least the sun was gone and a chilly wind was blowing through the trees.